This watchdog blog, by journalist Norman Oder, offers analysis, commentary, and reportage about the $4.9 billion project to build the Barclays Center arena and 16 high-rise buildings at a crucial site in Brooklyn. Dubbed Atlantic Yards by developer Forest City Ratner in 2003, it was rebranded Pacific Park Brooklyn in 2014 after the Chinese government-owned Greenland Group bought a 70% stake in 15 towers. New York State still calls it Atlantic Yards. Note: archive at right.

The untrustworthy men of God: how the (paid by Ratner) Revs. Daughtry and Sharpton twisted the truth

Last week and this one I'll try to compensate slightly for the failure of any metro columnists to show up and glean insights from the rich spectacle of the Barclays Center groundbreaking March 11.

It always goes down easier when it comes from a man of the cloth, right?

Even more than politicians, they can walk up to a podium and speak with brio, no matter the facts. And the Reverends Herbert Daughtry and Al Sharpton, however slender their understanding of the Atlantic Yards, know whose side they're on.

And while they may in their hearts genuinely believe in AY, the financial contributions they've received from Forest City Ratner surely make it less likely they'd do any real research.

The invocation

He's a legend, right, the man who gave the invocation? Had any of the journalists covering the groundbreaking been to the May 2009 state Senate oversight hearing at the Pratt Institute, they would've remembered how Daughtry heckled throughout.

Or they might have remembered that Daughtry refused to say how much money Forest City Ratner contributed to his fledging Downtown Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance (DBNA). Or that, in the promotional Brooklyn Standard of 2005, Daughtry called Bruce Ratner's customary manner "humble, winsome."

Talking to God, as Daughtry put it, he deceptively described the Atlantic Yards site as being transformed from a "long-neglected, rodent-infested, garbage-strewn strip of geography into a modern oasis of splendid residential and commercial dwellings."

Only Dave D'Alessandro of the Star-Ledger noticed, commenting, "There wasn’t much chance of anyone walking it back from there."

(Photos copyright James Leynse)

Daughtry closed with words from "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," the black national anthem.

This arena, this groundbreaking, may have some trickle-down benefits for black Brooklyn, even substantial ones, but not as a percentage of the project and the public subsidies.

(By the way, Daughtry testified at the 8/23/06 hearing on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement that he lived “not far from the project” but “also happen to live in New Jersey and I happen to live in Augusta, Georgia.” That’s obfuscatory; his book No Monopoly on Suffering: Blacks and Jews in Crown Heights (and Elsewhere) explains that he and his wife raised their children at their home in Teaneck, NJ.)

He’s particularly pleased with the state-of-the-art health facility that will be built, aimed at improving health disparities in the community, especially in Fort Greene, which has a high infant mortality rate.

“I’ve been in this neighborhood for 40 years, and no other developer have ever come to me,” he said. “Ratner came to meet me in the community and he said he’s prepared to put his money into the community’s foundation.”

Daughtry told the AmNews that his organization negotiated getting a luxury suite at the Barclays Center to use as an incentive for a program that encourages students to improve their grades in school. He also said that he would receive 50 to 100 tickets to all events to give to community members who would usually not have access.

It's supposed to be in Phase 1 of the project, which could take 12 years. Here's the description in Chapter 1, Project Description, of the Final Environmental Impact Statement:

The proposed project would also include a 20,000-sf health care facility that would provide a broad range of health care services to the community. Services at this proposed facility (program being developed) could include primary care and preventative services, specialty care, diagnostic testing and ancillary services and related support services to improve the management of prevalent chronic diseases. This health center would occupy a portion of the residential space and would be constructed during Phase I.

While it is understood that the Project Developer will continue to work with and assist DBNA in the implementation of the health care center initiative, except as otherwise provided in this Agreement or the Project Implementation Plan, the Project Developer shall have no obligation to provide on-going operational funding to the health care center.

No other developer has ever come to Daughtry? Is it really that little--the gesture of inclusion and some tens of thousands of dollars--that justifies it all in his mind?

As for Daughtry's claims of a suite, maybe they're talking about an unsold suite, but here's what the CBA says:

The Arena Developer will designate one (1) box and four (4) seats within the lower bowl, and fifty (50) seats in the upper bowl, for community use with priority given to seniors and youths for all events throughout the year.

It doesn't explicitly say that those tickets would go through Daughtry, but that seems to be his impression of the deal.

The upper bowl tickets would have a face value of $15. Let's put aside the possibility that, as with this year, the tickets might have no value. At $15 each, 50 tickets represent a face value of $750. Over 41 home games and three pre-season games, the total would be $33,000 a year.

Meanwhile, Forest City Ratner last year got a $31 million boost in subsidies from the city. It can afford some relative crumbs, especially when channeled through such a voluble advocate.

(Sharpton officially moved his residence from New Jersey to Brooklyn in 1996 so he could run for mayor. Newcomer?)

At the groundbreaking, Sharpton seemed to be a substitute for ACORN's Bertha Lewis, historically a prominent presence at AY-related events--heck, she MC'd the press event/rally before the August 2006 hearing on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement--but now head of a group with some very distracting baggage.

No need to tangle Forest City Ratner in ACORN's problems--beyond, of course, that $1.5 million bailout. (The bailout, interestingly enough, didn't save ACORN from dissolution, but it helped keep ACORN on its feet through the groundbreaking. Money well spent.)

There was little talk about the affordable housing plan--the term 50/50 did not escape anyone's lips--but a lot about minority empowerment.

Empowering Jay-Z

A minority of one, that one being a multi-millionaire named Jay-Z, a minority owner of the Nets.

"This project has gone through many hurdles, and there are those that continue to take different views," Sharpton declared, sounding statesmanlike without actually understanding the project. "But I want to say that what this project represents, in terms of jobs and contracts and inclusion, is something that weighs heavily on the need of a national mentality for a model on how we do these types of programs."

After making further vague references to the CBA, Sharpton moved on to everyone's favorite trope: The Brooklyn Dodgers. "Let me say this, also: the symbolism of what this team will mean," said the New Jersey resident. "When I was growing up in Brooklyn, my mother used to tell me about how it made her feel, that she could go to Ebbets Field before I was born, and see Jackie Robinson play. Jackie Robinson was the first black to own--to be able to play in major league baseball. He played his first games right here in Brooklyn and broke the color line in terms of major league baseball players. I'm glad I lived to see the color line in ownership broken in Brooklyn, where we've gone from Jackie to Jay-Z, where we can not only play the game but we can own a piece of the game. So my mother saw Jackie and my daughters will see Jay-Z--we have come a long way."

Members of the public should root for an owner, one who owns a tiny piece of the team?

Sharpton somehow neglected to point out that in June 2006, the majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, Robert L. Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television, announced that Brooklyn-born Michael Jordan would become the second-largest investor--two black men running a basketball team.

"But we have a long way to go," Sharpton continued. "And I think that progress takes tension, it takes discomfort--you can't have a baby without labor pains. But let the baby be born. Let us go forth. The pain is over in terms of the negotiations."

Negotiations? He probably didn't mean arm's length negotiations dubiously claimed by the ESDC. He probably did mean the CBA "negotiations" that involved only groups favorable to the project and neglected, for example, the three local community boards.

"Let's break ground on a new day, where in Brooklyn all of us will build together, work together, and share together," he said, unmindful of the fact that so few Brooklyn officials--and no local reps--were on the dais. "Let those of us that are concerned about the affordable housing keep on advocating, but let us also know that... people like Jay-Z out of the Marcy Projects can now sit back in the owner's box and say that we have a piece of the rock, too. That's why I came to Brooklyn."

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We have gon from someone who couldn't be bought who, as far a as I can tell, had a top notch mind that was applied outside his chosen field to a group of lap-dogs and, to use words that Sharpton uses, interlopers sniffing around for a morsel.

No top notch minds involved in this one. It is pretty telling that Branch Rickey could mix business and social justice getting much more social justice than $$ whereas this situation paints a veneer of social justice on a billion dollar boon-doggle.

African American businessmen Peter Bynoe and Bertram Lee acquired a 32.5% stake in the Denver Nuggets in 1989, and also served as managing general partners, with Bynoe running day-to-day operations.

Their tenure was not terribly successful, but compared to the current state of the Nets and Jay-Z's tiny sliver of an ownership stake, Bynoe and Lee were far more "black Branch Rickey (and Walter O'Malley)" than Mr. Carter.

While that's part of the lawsuit, more prominent are claims of racial discrimination and retaliation, with black employees claiming repeated abuse by white supervisors, preferential treatment toward Hispanic colleagues, and retaliation in response to complaints.

Two individual supervisors, for example, are charged with referring to black employees as “black motherfucker,” “dumb black bitch,” “black monkey,” “piece of shit” and “nigger.”

Two have referred to an employee blind in one eye as “cyclops,” and “the one-eyed guy,” and an employee with a nose disorder as “the nose guy.”

There's been no official response yet though arena spokesman Barry Baum told the Daily News they, but take “allegations of this kind very seriously” and have "a zero tolerance policy for…

To supporters of Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project, it's a long-awaited plan for long-overlooked land. "The Atlantic Yards area has been available for any developer in America for over 100 years,” declared Borough President Marty Markowitz at a 5/26/05 City Council hearing.

Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, mused on 11/15/05 to WNYC's Brian Lehrer, “Isn’t it interesting that these railyards have sat for decades and decades and decades, and no one has done a thing about them.” Forest City Ratner spokesman Joe DePlasco, in a 12/19/04 New York Times article ("In a War of Words, One Has the Power to Wound") described the railyards as "an empty scar dividing the community."

But why exactly has the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Vanderbilt Yard never been developed? Do public officials have some responsibility?

At right is a photo of a poster spotted in Hasidic Williamsburg right. Clearly there's an event scheduled at the Barclays Center aimed at the Haredi Jewish community (strict Orthodox Jews who reject secular culture), but the lack of English text makes it cryptic.

The website Matzav.com explains, Protest Against Israeli Draft of Bnei Yeshiva Rescheduled for Barclays Center:
A large asifa to protest the drafting of bnei yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel into the Israeli army that had been set to take place this month will instead be held on Sunday, 17 Sivan/June 11, at the Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn, NY.
So attendees at a big gathering will protest an apparent change of policy that will make it much more difficult for traditional Orthodox Jewish students--both Hasidic (who follow a rebbe) and non-Hasidic (who don't)--to get deferments from the draft. Comments on the Yeshiva World website explain some of the debate.

First mentioned in April, the Atlantic Yards project in Atlanta is moving ahead--and has the potential to nudge Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn further down in Google searches.

According to a 5/30/17 press release, Hines and Invesco Real Estate Announce T3 West Midtown and Atlantic Yards:
Hines, the international real estate firm, and Invesco Real Estate, a global real estate investment manager, today announced a joint venture on behalf of one of Invesco Real Estate’s institutional clients to develop two progressive office projects in Atlanta totalling 700,000 square feet. T3 West Midtown will be a 200,000-square-foot heavy timber office development and Atlantic Yards will consist of 500,000 square feet of progressive office space in two buildings. Both projects are located on sites within Atlantic Station in the flourishing Midtown submarket.
Hines will work with Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture (HPA) as the design architect for both T3 West Midtown and Atlantic Yards. DLR Group will be t…

Pacific Park Brooklyn is seriously delayed, Forest City Realty Trust said yesterday in a news release, which further acknowledged that the project has caused a $300 million impairment, or write-down of the asset, as the expected revenues no longer exceed the carrying cost.

The Cleveland-based developer, parent of Brooklyn-based Forest City Ratner, which is a 30% investor in Pacific Park along with 70% partner/overseer Greenland USA, blamed the "significant impairment" on an oversupply of market-rate apartments, the uncertain fate of the 421-a tax break, and a continued increase in construction costs.

While the delay essentially confirms the obvious, given that two major buildings have not launched despite plans to do so, it raises significant questions about the future of the project, including:if market-rate construction is delayed, will the affordable h…

Real Estate Weekly, reporting on trends in Chinese investment in New York City, on 11/18/15 quoted Jim Costello, a senior vice president at research firm Real Capital Analytics:
“They’re typically building high-end condos, build it and sell it. Capital return is in a few years. That’s something that is ingrained in the companies that have been coming here because that’s how they’ve grown in the last 35 years. It’s always been a development game for them. So they’re just repeating their business model here,” he said.
When I read that last November, I didn't think it necessarily applied to Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, now 70% owned (outside of the Barclays Center and B2 modular apartment tower), by the Greenland Group, owned significantly by the Shanghai government.
A majority of the buildings will be rentals, some 100% market, some 100% affordable, and several--the last several built--are supposed to be 50% market/50% subsidized. (See tentative timetable below.)Selling development …

As I've written, Mayor Bill de Blasio sure knows how to steer and spin coverage of his affordable housing initiatives.

Indeed, his latest announcement, claiming significant progress, came with a pre-press release op-ed in the New York Daily News and then a friendly photo-op press conference with an understandably grateful--and very lucky--winner of an affordable housing lottery.

To me, though, the most significant quote came from Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, who, as the Wall Street Journal reported:
said public housing had been “starved” of federal support for years now, leaving the city with fewer ways of creating affordable housing. “Are we relying too heavily on the private sector?” she said. “There is no alternative.”
Though Glen was using what she surely sees as a common-sense phrase, it recalls the slogan of a politician with whom I doubt de Blasio identifies: former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a Conservative who believed in free markets.